


to these crowns we cling (Prompt 3 - Muster)

by unmended



Series: FFXIVWrite2020 [3]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: #FFXIVWrite2020, Ambiguous Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Bad Ending, Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Spoilers, Gen, Il Mheg (Final Fantasy XIV), POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:27:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26276398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unmended/pseuds/unmended
Summary: Feo Ul makes an offer to you, a wicked offer, and you take it blindly. Hang the consequences.(The Titania Bad End)
Series: FFXIVWrite2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1906036
Kudos: 11
Collections: Emet-Selch's Wholesomely Debauched Bookclub FFXIV-Writes 2020 Collection





	to these crowns we cling (Prompt 3 - Muster)

* * *

  
  
“Shall I yield up my throne? You could claim it – cut ties with the mortal world, hide away in the castle…” Feo Ul tells you at the top of the watchtower in the Crystarium.  
  
“It won’t fix the problem…but would it really matter? If any pesky heroes come calling with steel and magic, all of Il Mheg will rise up in your defense!” They raise their fists in a mock fighting stance, and calm, holding a hand out, trying to reach you, lost in thought as you are.  
  
“My crown and scepter are yours…if you want them.”

You nod once, solemnly, looking away from them. Your teeth grit together. Your shoulders shake. You nod again as a hot tear slips free and falls down your face.

Feo Ul's eyes widen in surprise, but they understand. Though it seems they were not expecting this response from you.  
  
For you to break, in the end. To give in. To wish a different end after _all of this_ and to trade in your brief, ephemeral existence for something...more. Something else.

"My dearest sapling." They touch your face with a tiny hand. "Let us take you away from here. What we have is yours - let us away."

* * *

Feo Ul - no - Titania, the King, you correct yourself quickly. They rise to their full splendor once safely returned to the castle. To the seat of their power.

They relinquish their relics to you with a sad but wondrous smile on their face, holding them out directly to you.

It all happens very suddenly - you do not even have time to really think beyond a few moments.

Moments to regret the choice that you have made.

Really realize what you have chosen to do.

What you have condemned this shard to - your friends…. the agony of their hopeful faces twist into you like a knife.

Time ceases to move forward the moment your hand touches the scepter and crown. You feel it - a change – begin.

Your ears thin and point. The light inside you twists, burns, and roils, lashing out - but not in the way it did before. Not in the way that threatens to make a slobbering, feral monster out of you – no…

The crown moves to plant itself gently atop your head, and something holds you up despite your knees beginning to buckle. Feo Ul reaches for you with a concerned look on their face and that’s the last thing you think you might see-

Then the pain begins, deep from within, and you are unable to think any longer.

You cannot see through the white, certainly. But within that burning, painful, sensation you feel your armor fall away, fracture, and shatter. Clattering to the floor with a loud, hollow, clang. You hear a scream ring out to fill the empty halls and it takes a moment for you to realize it is your own as your voice cracks and it too is lost.

It shouldn’t be like this. It was never supposed to be like this.

What have you **_done_**.

This is wrong. Wrong wrong _wrong wrong wrong wrong **wrong**._

You feel something light and airy spread out to cover you and extend your aether out further, further, smoothing out along your back and out from your chest. A light and airy sensation takes you, lifts you delicately in the center of the room where you yourself fought the King not so long ago, and you can feel those same wings sprout forth from your back and curl protectively around you.

Your hand grips the scepter like a lifeline as it lengthens to full height in your hand and suddenly you can hear the whispers of something ancient and verdant, stretching across time and space.

A mischievous hymn - a childish laugh.

Slowly the blinding light recedes from your eyes, and you are left blinking as your vision returns. You turn over a hand in front of your face, the scepter still clutched tightly in the other. Skin changed to a pale porcelain, as if you could shatter, but you know now that you won’t. You can see wisps of your hair in the corner of one eye, stark white and drifting around you like a halo. And you can feel the traitorous light swirling inside you, contained.

_For now._

Feo Ul remains below you in the hall, smaller, lessened somewhat having relinquished their crown, head bowed, but you can still see them trembling. Your branch, loveliest of branches. You will keep them safe. This you can do now.

You turn and look up at the stained glass of the castle windows, the light seeping into the throne room fills it with a lovely golden hue.

You take in a deep breath and call out to your people. A thrill crawling up your spine as you stretch the limits of your new power.

You send out an undeniable call, mustering your army, shoring up your defenses. This is your kingdom now, and these are your people.

  
And for the final touch:

"To me, my lovelies, to me."

And you hear whispered back, reverently:

_Titania... Titania... Titania...  
  
  
_

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote a short and unfinished version of this that i never published along with a Titania-WoL drawing i also never finished last year, so I redid it and made it shiny and hurt myself again ahahah.  
> 5.3 messed me up so i just want to be sad, apparently.
> 
> thanks for coming along with me!
> 
> If you're of the writing persuasion or generally just want to yell about final fantasy xiv, come and join usssss in the discorrrrrd:
> 
> [Emet-Selch's Wholesomely Debauched and Enabling Book Club](https://discord.gg/4gUTQta)


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